Cumpleaños at The English Center
wow… when God gives an idea, He wraps it all in multiple layers of blessing!
His latest SCORE was the inspiration of the Monthly Birthday Party. On the enrollment form, we have a field for birthdays. It’s nice to have an idea of the demographics of our classes, although the import of those statistics is a bit skewed from the norm, since the teaching of English spans the generations.
However, since our schedule is packed and students can get tired, I wanted a way to keep them refreshed and invigorated throughout the year. And thus came the idea of the Monthly Birthday Party! Every month, around the middle of the month, we have a party for all the students whose birthdays are in that month, whether before or after that date.
Or, in the case of dear E. [name obscured deliberately], ON that date! And it is about this sweet woman that I want to tell you this story.
Yesterday we had our first monthly birthday party! We bought cookies and soft drinks, but for the “cumpleañeros” (the birthday people) we baked a “big cookie” in my Wilton Heart Cookie pan that I brought here when we moved from the States. Our daughter, Staton, baked the cookie. [She is QUITE the baker for a 15 yr old! or any age, really!!] Then we frosted it and put on one candle for each of the birthday people.
Yesterday was also THE birthday, exactly, for E.! She looked happy as she ate her special birthday cookie, but she also looked a bit “pensive”. I wondered what was on her mind… and then I found out!
E. was talking to one of the other students and I heard her say (in Spanish, of course!) “… not at ALL like other schools! This isn’t just ‘some institution’ where they just want your money. They really CARE about us here! And she [meaning me] isn’t just ‘some Director’, she’s CYNTHIA… she’s a friend. This school is like a family.”
wow… I couldn’t have wished for anything else! You see, our English Center is just the tip of the plow of God’s love and Witness in our ministry. This is our “seeker service” as well as the method of turning up the soil of people’s hearts so that we can plant the seed of the Gospel deeply within their hearts.
Bolivia is like just about any other post-modern field of witness. They’ve heard it before, they’ve been baptized as infants, they’ve seen people come and go and they’ve heard the rhetoric. In order to reach our people for Christ, we FIRST have to win the battle for their hearts and trust! Once a relationship has been established, we can share the Truths about Jesus and Salvation. The comments made by E., and the agreement in the group to whom she was speaking, prove that God is helping us win that first battle!
And who knew that a simple thing like a collective birthday party would say so much about hour hearts and love for our people! Who knew? Well, GOD knew, of course! And I know that is why He encouraged and inspired the idea to celebrate our people, specifically, every month.
Don’t we celebrate all the students, every class time? Certainly we do! But this special emphasis, and the time (and money) invested in putting on a party, shines the light of love on all those daily acts of love.
Now that E. knows we love her and value her, don’t you think she will be more open to hearing about how much Jesus truly loves her and wants her love in return? We think so, and we look forward to a growing relationship that will support the things we want to share from God. Please pray with us for dear E. and for the other students God has placed in our paths and in our lives, that we may share Jesus in a real and living way!
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